Mayawati to not contest UP elections even as Akhilesh & CM Yogi may throw hat in the ring

In another move differentiating BSP from other mainstream parties, former Chief Minister Mayawati decided to not contest the UP elections this time as well. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, BSP secretary-general Satish Chandra Misra stated that the party supremo was supervising the election campaign for not just UP but also all the other poll-bound states. Misra, who is perceived as the no.2 in BSP, also ruled out fighting the elections himself citing that he is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

BSP MP SC Misra remarked, "I am in Rajya Sabha. Mayawati JI has to supervise the polls that are happening in 5 states. Elections are going to take place in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Mayawati Ji is supervising the election. We are going to the states as per Mayawati Ji's directive. We are not fighting the elections."

On January 1, UP CM Yogi Adityanath confirmed his wish to fight the election but refrained from divulging whether he would contest from Ayodhya, Mathura, or Gorakhpur. Two days later, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too expressed willingness to contest the polls depending on the party's directive. Since 2012, every CM whether it is Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, or Adityanath has opted to get elected from the Legislative Council instead of contesting the Assembly polls.

BSP's woes ahead of UP elections

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BJP won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. The Mayawati-led party is eyeing a comeback in the state by trying to emulate the social engineering formula that propelled it to power in 2007. Misra had played a key role in bringing Brahmins close to the party as he held a series of rallies projecting BSP's poll symbol 'elephant' as Lord Ganesh. 

Thus in July 2021, it commenced its outreach to the Brahmin community which constitutes approximately 10% of UP's population by organizing Prabuddha Varg Sammelans. However, most of its sitting MLAs have either quit the party or been expelled for anti-party activities. This includes Hakim Lal Bind, Vandana Singh, Ramveer Upadhyay, Anil Kumar Singh, Aslam Raini, Aslam Ali, Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hargovind Bhargava, Sushma Patel, Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Vinay Shankar Tiwari and Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali. Moreover, Mayawati is yet to commence her full-fledged election campaign for the UP polls.